Crashing Waves and Creaking Floorboards
by OnceUponAMadameMayor
Summary: Regina and Emma have a conversation while aboard the Jolly Roger. This conversation is mostly dominated by awkward silences. One shot. Swan Queen if you squint.


**Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon A Time.**

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The sky in Neverland wasn't blue. Not even at night. Not really, anyways. Unless you counted aqua as blue.

The White-Knighted Savior of Storybrooke found this slight tweak in the world's normal workings almost soothing. At least, she thought, at least this place doesn't bother hiding behind the real world. At least this place just makes itself clear. Nothing to hide.

"Miss Swan, if you could please refrain from projecting your thoughts," the voice she didn't want to hear drawled. Turning, Emma frowned at the former Mayor.

"Nobody needs to hear you whining about the real world in our heads," Regina said shortly, adjusting the dark-woven scarf she consistently wore. Her expression was casually irritated, which seemed to Emma like it had been reserved just for when Regina dealt with Emma. "We hear it enough in person."

Emma scoffed and turned back to the edge of the ship, looking over the railing and keeping her eyes on the never ceasing waves.

"Aren't you supposed to be the one giving me magic lessons and helping me to not project my thoughts?" she retorted. "Doesn't this make you look bad?"

Although Emma didn't turn around to face Regina, she could have sworn Regina was rolling her eyes.

"Trust me, the only person making you look bad is yourself. I did in fact just explain to you yesterday how to avoid projecting your thoughts."

Emma turned to her, confused. "When did that happen?"

The former mayor didn't have to answer Emma's question. Her expression spoke for her. _Point proven_, it seemed to say, in Regina's antagonistic voice that just couldn't get out of Emma's head. Regina sneered at the Savior, her brown eyes positively smug. Emma felt the urge - which was becoming less and less unusual every day - to slap the smug smirk off of Regina's face.

"Again, Miss Swan, with the thought projection? Try to control yourself, please."

Emma groaned and returned to leaning on the rail. There was basic silence for a few long moments, in which the only sounds were the waves breaking against the side of the Jolly Roger and the few creaks of the wooden planks as Regina shifted. Finally Emma heard the woman approach the rail herself.

Her demeanor, Emma noticed, was completely calm and emotionless. Emma was a bit impressed; Regina had gained her sea legs very quickly, especially considering the first few days aboard the sea vessel. Emma, in her petty moments, considered those days the best few of the journey; in which Regina hadn't been able to venture above deck due to the nasty green color she acquired if she did.

"I can see that you really DON'T pay attention during your magical education, Miss Swan. How did you get through school?"

Emma, only a little embarrassed, ducked her head. Regina smirked. "Let me guess: a healthy amount of cheating?"

Emma couldn't help the tiny smile that came to her face.

"What a great example you set for Henry," Regina said, a hint of teasing in her otherwise monotonous voice. At the mention of the son that they shared, both parties grew somber, and once again crashing waves and creaking floorboards became the only audio in the setting. The faintest sound of snoring drifted up from belowdecks.

"Do you think he's out there?" Emma asked after a little while. Regina didn't speak for a minute, and Emma shifted so that she was leaning on her elbows, to face the former Mayor. The brunette had taken on a distant look, as if in her mind, she was a thousand miles away, in a different world. A sudden image flashed into Emma's mind; an image of two shadowed people; one tall and one young, sitting on a hill under an apple tree as a warm summer sun shone down from a deep blue sky.

As the image lingered in Emma's inner eye, a ray of sunlight illuminated the faces of the people, revealing them to be a strangely happy looking Regina - something new to the Savior - and a grinning Henry. Both the adoptive mother and son seemed peaceful and content. The picturesque scene lifted Emma's spirits slightly, although it also irked her like a mosquito bite that it was Regina in the picture with Henry, and not Emma.

Just as suddenly as the image had come, it was gone, and Regina let out a low chuckle, her left hand raising to tuck a lock of her feather like dark hair behind an ear.

"I see that even the most incompetent can succeed."

Emma gaped, her former question forgotten and lost in a whirlwind of sudden thoughts.

"Was that-is that...?"

The former mayor responded dryly, "Yes, Miss Swan, you've managed to irritate me to the point where I'm inadvertently projecting _my_ thoughts."

Emma scowled for a brief moment.

"Hey now, you were the one who decided to come talk to me. We could finish this shift in silence."

Regina shrugged. After another brief time with only crashing waves and creaking floorboards to fill the void of quiet, the brunette turned to face the blond. Her expression was lackluster; smooth and ambivalent. But Emma wasn't stupid; she had dealt with this woman for long enough that she knew. It was quite clear, really. In Regina's dark eyes, Emma could see her own question reflecting back at her.

_Do you think he's out there?_

"I don't know whether he's out there," the queen said after a moment of forethought. "There's a chance that we'll never see him again."

Although Regina's voice was flat, Emma could detect the slight waver, the tremor in the voice, the extra blinking of Regina's long black lashes. As someone who had - up until recently - had a job in which body language was everything, Emma knew when someone was about to break, snap, cry. And the woman next to her, unless someone intervened, was going to.

Emma bit her lip. Then, in a motion that seemed to take a lot of deliberation, she reached out and put her hand on top of the former mayor's. Regina flinched at the contact, as if it had been the last thing she was expecting, but much to Emma's surprise and faint amusement, she did not pull away. It seemed as if Regina needed the comfort of contact just as much as she tried to fool people she didn't.

"We'll find him. He's out there."

More silence. This time, it was not broken. The only sounds that were audible during the rest of the two women's shift was the ever present crashing waves and creaking floorboards.

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**What did you think? Reviews are the fairy dust that makes my writing grow! :***

**Funny story, I wrote most of this on my dad's ipad while on a train, so I had him email it to me. So I check my email just now, and there was a little message along with the document.**

**Dad: Are u projecting your thoughts via email?**

**...and this is why my dad is awesome. **


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